Bill Baptista Chosen as 8th Member of Ohio Alliance of Direct Support Professionals Council

Bill has worked for ViaQuest Day Services in Westerville for 2 years. Prior to entering this field, he was a realtor in Florida. His passion to help others is what keeps him going. He loves his job, is enthusiastic and on time for everything that he does.

When Bill Baptista was chosen by his agency to attend the 2015 DSP Summit, he had no idea that his career as a DSP would be taken to a new level. Arriving early to the Summit he was greeted and welcomed by Bethany Toledo, the Executive Director of OADSP. As the day progressed, Bill met some of the DSP Council members.

His story however, truly begins with the game “Let’s Make a Deal”. Bill won the grand prize, an all -­‐ expenses paid trip to Lousiville, Kentucky for the 1st National Alliance of Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) Conference. As an added bonus, he would be travelling and staying with the DSP Council. I was concerned Bill would have some reservations about traveling, and sharing a hotel room with people that he didn’t know. But Bill had no concerns and fit right in! He had gotten to know some of the council members during the Summit and found them to be an energetic and friendly group. Bill prides himself in being a people person and quickly gained 7 new friends. The opportunity to be part of a much bigger picture was in his future.

After spending two days at the National Conference with the council, Bill knew that he wanted to be a part of the group and he wanted to help them accomplish their goals. Bill has a strong desire to help DSPs get the recognition that they deserve. He also wants to have a hand in helping others continue their education. The council was accepting applications and he immediately applied. Bill was chosen as the 8th member of the DSP Council.

When asked what he hopes to accomplish by joining the council, he proudly responded with this statement.

“I hope to reach as many DSPs as possible to encourage them to continue learning and to grow in this field. I want to help them be the best that they can be.”

Bill Baptista has now been an official DSP Council member since June of 2015. He is a great addition to the group and has proven to be a team player. During my interview with Bill, I asked him what he has learned from the council.

“I have learned how to improve my skills in public speaking and a lot about working together as a cohesive group.”

Thank you Bill! It has been an honor and privilege to work beside you. You will do great things! DSPs all over this great state will learn and grow through the work that you are doing. – Donna Rhodes, OADSP E-flash Editor

Story reposted from Ohio Alliance of Direct Support Professionals

ViaQuest Merges Day and Employment Services to Enhance Quality of Program

Participants Enter Contest to Select Program Name

In previous years, ViaQuest offered a program for day services and a separate program for employment services. In order to better serve the individuals, we made the decision to merge the two programs and operate as one business line, to help enable all staff to provide consistent, beneficial and quality services. In addition, it allows for seamless transition between the day and employment services offered.

To ensure the merge was not only successful, but also exciting, ViaQuest decided to rename the program, making the process collaborative among the individuals who utilize the services. We decided to hold a contest to rename the program to be more inclusive of everything we do.

The contest included seven locations across the state. Any individual at any location was eligible to enter a name suggestion. Given the large number of entries, each location ended up choosing their top three contenders. These individuals received a prize determined by their management team.

The next round was up to the administrators, who were charged with narrowing down these selections to their top three picks, and submitting them to the executive director. Winners of this level received lunch with their management team and a ViaQuest t-shirt. It was up to the executive director and ViaQuest president and CEO Rich Johnson to select the winner from the top nine suggestions.

The lucky winner, with his suggestion of ViaQuest Day & Employment Services was Aaron Rohs. Aaron has been taking advantage of ViaQuest’s services since 2013. He likes the combination of community activities, the social aspect of the program and an option to work. Besides bragging rights, Aaron was treated to lunch by Rich Johnson and presented with a plaque for his dedication and contribution to the program.

ViaQuest Patrons to See Improvements in Quality Care and Overall Experience

Serving individuals and providing quality care and service has always been a high-valued standard of ViaQuest. In order to achieve such success, several staff members recently attended the Academy for Excellence in HealthCare – a program designed to help health care organizations identify and solve their greatest operating challenges to improve quality care and overall experience.

The Academy, a collaboration between the Fisher College of Business (The Ohio State University) and Cardinal Health, strives to drive results that significantly reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. The program focuses on LEAN Management strategies, motivating participants to try new things and ask questions, to further improve communication and leadership.

ViaQuest staff (Hattie Grills, Director of Central Services; Katie Gallenstein, VP of Home Health; Kathy Richard, Chief Clinical Officer; Gary Butler, Program Coach and Executive in Residence in the Management Sciences department, Fisher College of Business; and Sehul Patel, Chief Information Officer) were accepted to the sixth cohort of the Academy of Excellence in Healthcare. The team attended a week of on-site classroom training geared toward using LEAN Management concepts to achieve business or operational process goals.

The team identified their goal as improving the functioning of the Central Intake Department. More specifically, they were looking to decrease turnover, errors, overtime and referral processing time. They worked alongside representatives of other well-known healthcare organizations, such as the Mayo Clinic and Mount Carmel St. Ann’s.

Already, the project has made significant change to the quality of the department and the services provided. The team continues to expand their knowledge into other areas of the business as well. In just a short 13 weeks, the project reflected the following:

  • Billing errors reduced from 12.7% to 3.8%
  • Overtime decreased from 17.6 hours to 9.9 hours
  • Referral processing time reduced from 77.3 minutes to 42 minutes
  • Improvement of overall experience for both employees and clients
  • Money saved and efficiencies improved
  • The project will continue to reach longer range goals in each identified area

 

“The rapidly evolving health care industry has created a new standard of excellence for the safety and accuracy of patient care. With its proven record in creating and shaping lean leaders through an operational excellence curriculum unmatched in the country, Fisher College of Business is uniquely positioned to deliver this program. As a partner and thought leader, Cardinal Health is a health care services company with a decade of experience and commitment to LEAN management and Operational Excellence. This unique partnership brings together an ideal combination of academic and industry experience that will provide participants with a pragmatic and results oriented development experience.”
-The Ohio State Univeristy, Fisher College of Business

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